Mr. Speaker, I have for several
years come to the House floor to express my concern for the value of the
dollar. It has been, and is, my concern that we in the Congress have not
met our responsibility in this regard. The constitutional mandate for Congress
should only permit silver and gold to be used as legal tender and has been
ignored for decades and has caused much economic pain for many innocent
Americans. Instead of maintaining a sound dollar, Congress has by both
default and deliberate action promoted a policy that systematically depreciates
the dollar. The financial markets are keenly aware of the minute-by-minute
fluctuations of all the fiat currencies and look to these swings in value
for an investment advantage. This type of anticipation and speculation
does not exist in a sound monetary system.

But Congress should be interested
in the dollar fluctuation not as an investment but because of our responsibility
for maintaining a sound and stable currency, a requirement for sustained
economic growth.

The consensus now is that
the dollar is weakening and the hope is that the drop in its value will
be neither too much nor occur too quickly; but no matter what the spin
is, a depreciating currency, one that is losing its value against goods,
services, other currencies and gold, cannot be beneficial and may well
be dangerous. A sharply dropping dollar, especially since it is the reserve
currency of the world, can play havoc with the entire world economy.

Gold is history's oldest
and most stable currency. Central bankers and politicians hate gold because
it restrains spending and denies them the power to create money and credit
out of thin air. Those who promote big government, whether to wage war
and promote foreign expansionism or to finance the welfare state here at
home, cherish this power.

History and economic law
are on the side of the gold. Paper money always fails. Unfortunately, though,
this occurs only after many innocent people have suffered the consequences
of the fraud that paper money represents. Monetary inflation is a hidden
tax levied more on the poor and those on fixed incomes than the wealthy,
the bankers, or the corporations.

In the past 2 years, gold
has been the strongest currency throughout the world in spite of persistent
central bank selling designed to suppress the gold price in hopes of hiding
the evil caused by the inflationary policies that all central bankers follow.
This type of depreciation only works for short periods; economic law always
rules over the astounding power and influence of central bankers.

That is what is starting
to happen, and trust in the dollar is being lost. The value of the dollar
this year is down 18 percent compared to gold. This drop in value should
not be ignored by Congress. We should never have permitted this policy
that was deliberately designed to undermine the value of the currency.

There are a lot of reasons
the market is pushing down the value of the dollar at this time. But only
one is foremost. Current world economic and political conditions lead to
less trust in the dollar's value. Economic strength here at home is questionable
and causes concerns. Our huge foreign debt is more than $2 trillion, and
our current account deficit is now 4 percent of GDP and growing. Financing
this debt requires borrowing $1.3 billion per day from overseas. But these
problems are ancillary to the real reason that the dollar must go down
in value. For nearly 7 years the U.S. has had the privilege of creating
unlimited amounts of dollars with foreigners only too eager to accept them
to satisfy our ravenous appetite for consumer items. The markets have yet
to discount most of this monetary inflation. But they are doing so now;
and for us to ignore what is happening, we do so at the Nation's peril.
Price inflation and much higher interest rates are around the corner.

Misplaced confidence in a
currency can lead money managers and investors astray, but eventually the
piper must be paid. Last year's record interest rate drop by the Federal
Reserve was like pouring gasoline on a fire. Now the policy of the past
decade is being recognized as being weak for the dollar; and trust and
confidence in it is justifiably being questioned.

Trust in paper is difficult
to measure and anticipate, but long-term value in gold is dependable and
more reliably assessed. Printing money and creating artificial credit may
temporarily lower interest rates, but it also causes the distortions of
malinvestment, overcapacity, excessive debt and speculation. These conditions
cause instability, and market forces eventually overrule the intentions
of the central bankers. That is when the apparent benefits of the easy
money disappear, such as we dramatically have seen with the crash of the
dot-coms and the Enrons and many other stocks.

Now it is back to reality.
This is serious business, and the correction that must come to adjust for
the Federal Reserve's mischief of the past 30 years has only begun. Congress
must soon consider significant changes in our monetary system.

Congress must soon consider
significant changes in our monetary system if we hope to preserve a system
of sound growth and wealth preservation. Paper money managed by the Federal
Reserve System cannot accomplish this. In fact, it does the opposite.